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Study: Big Growth in European Broadband
Fri Dec 3, 4:53 PM ET
Robin Arnfield, www.newsfactor.com
More than half of Europe's Internet users now enjoy a broadband Web connection at
home, according to a market research report from Internet audience tracking firm
Nielsen/NetRatings.
The growth of broadband has helped to expand the number of European Internet users
past the 100 million mark, Nielsen/NetRatings said.
UK and Italy Ahead
As of October 2004, 54.5 million Europeans accessed the Internet via a broadband link,
up 60 percent from 34.1 million a year earlier, according to the research firm.
The greatest growth was seen in Italy, at 120 percent, and in the UK, where the number
of broadband users almost doubled. Consumers have been drawn to broadband because of
more offerings for broadband services, which offer fast and always-connected Internet access.
In Europe, as in North America, consumers have the choice of cable TV broadband
services and telephone-based digital subscriber line (DSL) subscriptions.
Overall Internet Growth
Along with a rise in consumers changing their slow, dial-up accounts for broadband
subscriptions, there has been a growth in the overall number of Internet users in Europe.
The total number of European Internet users rose by 12 percent to 100 million in the 12
months to October 2004, led by consumers in France, Italy, the UK and Germany,
Nielsen/NetRatings said.
"Twelve months ago, high-speed Internet users made up just over one third of the
audience in Europe," Gabrielle Prior, European Internet analyst at Nielsen/NetRatings, says in
a statement.
"Now they are more than 50 percent -- and we expect this number to keep growing. As
the number of high-speed surfers grows, Web sites will need to adapt, update and enhance
their content to retain their visitors and encourage new ones."
Internet use in the United States has followed a similar trend. "In October 2004, 53 percent of
the American online population connected via broadband compared to 41 percent in October
2003," according to Marc Ryan, senior director and analyst, Nielsen/NetRatings.
Lower Estimate
The Yankee Group has a more cautious stance on broadband Internet usage in Europe
than Nielsen/NetRatings, while agreeing that there has been a sharp rise in broadband
subscriptions.
"We forecast 31.1 million paid broadband subscribers at the end of 2004 for Europe, a 62
percent increase from 2003," Patrick Mahoney, a Yankee Group analyst, told Newsfactor.
"The reason this differs so much from Nielsen is because our numbers reflect paid residential
subscriptions, not users -- one subscription can have many users."
Econ newspaper cutting
Lily Pang 4A 24
Summary of the news:
According to a market research of NetRatings, More than half of Europe's
Internet users now enjoy a broadband Web connection at home, more than a million
European uses the broadband Internet because of the growth of broadband. Italy has
the greatest growth, at 120 percent, and the number of broadband users almost
doubled at the UK. Consumers have been subscribing to broadband because of more
offerings for broadband services, which offer fast and always-connected Internet
access.
From the news, we know that the European uses more broadband service
because more offerings for broadband services. At the same time, because of more
advanced technology, broadband companies provide more broadband service to the
European, so both demand and supply increase.
Explanation of the graph:
Since there are more offerings for broadband services to European, the demand
for the broadband service increases, demand curve shifts from the left to right
(D0
D1).
The broadband companies provide more broadband services because of more
advanced technology, the supply increases and supply curve shifts from the left to
right (S0
S1).
Increase in supply is greater than the increase in demand, so the price of the
broadband service decreases (P0
P1) and the quantity transacted increases
(Q0
Q1).